I'll Protect You Until I Die!
by Eimii
Summary: Things go from bad to worse during the Third Exam prelims, and there's something odd about Sakura today... (slight crossover w/?)


  
  


Sakura couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Then... then the 'Extreme Lotus' is..." 

"You release the brain's restraints with the 'Initial Gate,' then with the 'Heal Gate' you drive up your stamina. By opening the third gate, the 'Life Gate,' you enter the 'Extreme Lotus...'" Gai explained gravely, not looking down to where his very own pupil was preparing to cross that forbidden threshold. 

"No way... even the 'Initial Lotus' damages his body so much; any more and he'll-!" 

"Yes..." Kakashi cut in, without turning from his observation of the fight, "this technique truly is a double-edged sword." Sakura couldn't help but feel a twinge of irritation at his distraction; Lee was putting his life was on the line, and her leader was busy capturing the technique with his sharingan. "Opening all of the gates is called 'The State of The Eight Celestial Gates'... for a short period of time you'd gain strength surpassing the Hokage, but in exchange you would definitely..." He paused, and Sakura felt a flare of chakra from the arena below. "... die." 

An icy spike of horror stabbed at the pink-haired kunoichi's heart. It was quickly blunted by awe as Lee showed them the true power of hard work, but a doubting voice still railed in the back of her mind even as the taijutsu specialist ricocheted his helpless opponent through the air like a pachinko ball. _Dammit, Lee, that pasty-faced little brat's not done! Don't do it, not yet!_

Confirmation of her worst fears came when she sensed the jounin on either side of her tense suddenly as the Extreme Lotus finished in a meteoric crash in the center of the room. Her eyes could only find Lee as he tumbled roughly to the floor beside ground zero, but she could feel Gai and Kakashi's anticipation turn to shock and dismay as they stared down at the cloud of dust dominating the arena below. _What happened?!_

She got her terrible answer when a huge maw of sand reared out of the cloud to engulf the downed boy, and the dust cleared enough to reveal Gaara, still very much alive. His grasping hand closed quickly, but deliberately, as Lee screamed in agony, unable to escape the Desert Coffin's crushing grip. For Sakura, the world seemed to move in slow motion as Gai vanished from her side, but she already knew that it was too late. She squeezed her eyes shut, but her heart still stopped when Lee's screams cut off with a gurgle and the sickening crunch of bone as the cocoon of sand collapsed. "NOOO! LEE!" 

_STOP SCREAMING, YOU DUMB BITCH! WE CAN STILL SAVE HIM!_

_HOW?!_ Sakura wailed internally, acknowledging the voice in her head for the first time in a long time. _TELL ME HOW!_

_OPEN YOUR EYES! OPEN THEM, DAMN YOU, AND LET ME _SEE! 

  
  
  


While the attention of the room remained riveted on the gory spectacle below, 'Sharingan Kakashi' was quick to notice when a powerful aura suddenly blossomed somewhere nearby. He was about to turn and look, but then he was momentarily half-blinded as a flare of intense spiritual energy erupted from the limp, bloody mess that a stoically weeping Gai now held in his arms. Clutching his left eye, he hastily pulled his forehead protector back down to its traditional position. 

Glancing warily around without the aid of the sharingan, the gray-haired jounin found only Sakura, hunched over and clutching the railing; she didn't meet his gaze, but tears dripped down her chin. Naruto and the others had already leapt to the floor to see with their own eyes what had become of their comrade. Much to his dismay, however, the strange presence had vanished, fading back into the emotionally charged atmosphere of the moment. 

As the medical nins hesitantly coaxed Gai to place Lee's remains in a body bag, so they could be cared for properly, Kakashi returned his attention to the young kunoichi beside him. Sakura still hadn't made a sound, and her body language was unreadable. With a sigh, he decided to let her be. Sakura had come out of the second test a much stronger than she had been before; even he'd been surprised, during her earlier fight with Ino. She would cope with the loss in her own way. He didn't have to worry about her doing anything stupid... unlike _some_ people. 

Only when Kakashi had left to keep Naruto from harassing the Sand nins off the field did Sakura raise her head; the leader of Team Seven might have reconsidered his last thought, had he seen the look she wore. Not a trace of grief touched Haruno Sakura's mouth as her lips drew tight over shining white teeth in a wild, face-splitting grin, and eyes like twin rings of emerald fire seemed to almost scorch the tears from her cheeks as she gazed down at the proceedings. 

But it was the third eye, opening like an angry gash in the middle of Sakura's forehead, that glared with the greatest, most piercing intensity as she watched the medical nins carry Lee's body away. "Heh... don't get too comfortable in there, thick-brows," she mocked with a low chuckle. Glancing down to the end of the balcony, Sakura flashed Hyuuga Neji a gleeful, toothy promise of pain to come as he stared at her in confusion, engorged veins prominent around his own strange eyes. 

"Ah... damn, it good to be alive!" the sanjiyan unkara decided with a triumphant stretch, laughing again as a still-shaken Choji and the mummy-wrapped Sound nin entered the arena for the final bout of the prelims. "HAH, C'MON TUBBY, SHOW US WHAT YOU'VE GOT!" she shouted in encouragement, earning her several odd looks from the gallery and a glare from the large boy below. "HURRY UP AND FLATTEN THE BASTARD! DON'T MAKE ME COME DOWN THERE AND KICK YOUR FAT ASS!" 

  
  
  


**I'll PROTECT YOU UNTIL I DIE!**

NARUTO + 3x3 EYES = 

SAKURA x ROCK LEE 

...FOREVER! ^_^ 

  
  



End file.
